Reyes v. JSD Construction Group
- Barbara Moses
- 1:21-cv-03406
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Reyes v. JSD Construction Group, Judge Moses ordered Leidy Reyes to submit missing settlement records before considering approval of the parties’ Fair Labor Standards Act settlement.
Leidy Reyes and her counsel, who were required to provide additional documentation concerning the proposed FLSA settlement’s attorneys’ fees and expenses.
What happened
In Reyes v. JSD Construction Group, the parties resolved their dispute through mediation, including claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act. They asked the court to approve their settlement.
The court found that the settlement papers did not include the documents needed to evaluate the reasonableness of the requested attorneys’ fees and costs. The missing materials were counsel’s retainer or contingency-fee agreement, counsel’s contemporaneous time records, and documentation of the plaintiff’s expenses.
Judge Barbara Moses ordered Leidy Reyes to submit properly authenticated copies of those documents by May 10, 2022. The order did not approve or reject the settlement.
The detailed version
- Reyes v. JSD Construction Group · No. 1:21-cv-03406
- Barbara Moses
- May 3, 2022
Background
United States District Judge Paul Gardephe referred the parties to mediation on July 23, 2021. The mediation resolved the parties’ dispute, including claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). On October 25, 2021, the parties asked the court to approve their FLSA settlement under the procedure discussed in Cheeks v. Freeport Pancake House, Inc. The case was later reassigned to Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses after the parties consented to her jurisdiction for the remaining proceedings.
Missing Documentation
The court reviewed the parties’ settlement-approval papers and found that they did not include three categories of information needed to assess the reasonableness of attorneys’ fees and costs:
- Plaintiff’s counsel’s retainer and/or contingency-fee agreement; - Plaintiff’s counsel’s contemporaneous time records; and - Documentation of plaintiff’s expenses.
The court noted that contemporaneous time records are required when attorneys seek fees.
Order
The court ordered plaintiff to submit properly authenticated copies of all three categories of documents no later than May 10, 2022. The opinion does not state that the court approved or rejected the settlement; it required additional materials before the court could evaluate the settlement-related fees and costs.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.